Fissler Confidential: Two of Borthwick's Lions attracting interest abroad

Bristol Bears and England loosehead Ellis Genge is attracting interest from Top 14 sides Pau, despite signing Beno Obano from Bath, and Bordeaux-Begles, after being “rested” from a recent England pre-season alignment camp at Pennyhill Park.

Genge, 31, is due to be under contract with the Bears until the end of the 2027-28 campaign, but speculation about his long-term future increased after he was left out of the alignment camp.

The Lions star has also attracted interest from a couple of clubs in Japan, with them and the French sides confident they can get a deal across the line a year before his contract ends.

England lock Ollie Chessum’s CV is doing the rounds at French clubs as his advisors try to increase pressure on Leicester Tigers to offer a lucrative new deal, with his contract set to run out at the end of the season.

Chessum is highly rated by Tigers boss Geoff Parling, and the club would like to avoid a repeat of this summer when they lost England enforcer George Martin, who joined Saracens when his Welford Road deal ran out.

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25 Sep 26

Bath

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Sources across the Channel say clubs know he won’t leave the Tigers before the World Cup next year, so they’re reluctant to make him an offer.

Former Ireland hooker Bernard Jackman has renewed his partnership with Pat Lam and become Bristol Bears’ new head of recruitment, and his first job is to find a replacement for Noah Heward.

Former Dragons boss Jackman has taken over the Bears’ recruitment after the well-thought-of Gethin Watts announced that he was leaving the West Country after seven years at the start of August.

They want someone to replace Heward, who suffered a serious knee injury in the PREM Rugby Cup defeat to Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park over the weekend.

Bath are closing in on agreeing a new deal with England openside flanker Guy Pepper, who entered the final year of his contract with the former Gallagher PREM champions in July.

Bath are keen to get their business done early and have been in talks with Pepper, who has won 15 international caps and moved to the West Country from Newcastle Falcons two years ago, for some time.

Well-placed sources have indicated significant progress and that Pepper, who was educated at Barnard Castle School and Durham University, should put pen to paper on a new deal in the very near future.

Northampton Saints boss Phil Dowson has outlined what former England winger Ollie Sleightholme needs to do to get his career back on track after ankle and hamstring problems dogged him.

Sleightholme, 26, is in the final year of his Saints contract, has carved out a reputation as one of the best finishers in the game, scored 11 tries in 14 games last season and is keen to get back to where he was a couple of years ago.

“He’s been very disrupted by injury, and we’ve got to try and make sure that he gets some consistency around his training week and then he gets some consistency around his performances as well,” Dowson told Fissler Confidential.

Harlequins boss Jason Gilmore has warned it will be another season before the club can compete with their PREM rivals in the transfer market.

Quins were only able to recruit six players this summer, including George Furbank from Northampton Saints and Bristol Bears lock James Dun, while 13 players left, as Gilmore says they needed to do some housekeeping.

“We’ve had to tidy up what the cap looks like, to be able to free up money, so we can put that into good players. But we’re still another cycle away from really getting that salary cap where we want it to be,” he told Fissler Confidential.

Georgian star Beka Saginadze is out of contract with Lyon at the end of the season, and Top 14 rivals are queuing up to sign him, according to Projetxarugby.

Openside flanker Saginadze, 27, moved to France in 2018 to Aurillac after starting his career in his homeland with Lelo Saracens Tbilisi, and has spent the last five seasons at Lyon.

The Georgia captain is on the radar of Montpellier and La Rochelle and is close to his compatriot full-back Davit Niniashvili, who is also in Ronan O’Gara’s squad.

Northampton Saints are looking to sign a loosehead cover until the end of the season, but they are looking to go shopping in rugby’s bargain basement for a recruit.

Saints started an urgent search this week but have a limited budget to bring in the right player before the season kicks off next weekend.

Fissler Confidential understands that their budget for the right player is around £45k.